ROCKFORD — The city has 557 miles of sidewalks, and how it cares for those pedestrian pathways is undergoing a dramatic change.

Before 2009, the city had what it called the “50/50 program,” in which property owners and the city would share the cost. People would approach the city about sidewalk replacement or repair and get their request on a list. Typically, it was first-come, first-serve. Whoever got their half of the money in and was highest on the waiting list got their sidewalk done. Occasionally, exceptions were made for hardship cases.

The city did it this way for decades.

The problem with that system was sidewalks falling into disrepair in areas where property owners didn’t care — absentee landlords, for example — tended to not get improvements.

Aldermen failed to award a 50/50 sidewalk program contract in 2009 because of a disagreement over who should get the bid.

That action prompted the city to move away from an antiquated and time-consuming sidewalk program that didn’t really address the need to move to a more holistic, needs-based approach, said Patrick Zuroske, the city’s superintendent of infrastructure and engineering.

“Our sidewalk program is really in a state of transition,” Zuroske said. “We are currently searching for ways to create a program that has more of an asset-based management approach. ... Our sidewalks are assets, just like our roads, and they should be managed as such.”

Trees the root of the problem

Sidewalks still are getting done, but whatever money is allocated to the program is going half as far because the city is covering the whole expense. This summer, it hopes to do anywhere from 60 to 100 projects, ranging from one or two squares to 10 to 12 squares, Zuroske said.

Crews will do as much as they can with $220,000, the amount aldermen set aside for sidewalks earlier this year. For every hundred requests that get done, hundreds more land on the waiting list.

Concrete sidewalks can last for decades, but underground damage from tree roots and other environmental causes can shorten their life spans.

“The sidewalks are pretty bad in some areas due to our greatest resource in the area, our trees,” explained Jeremy Bahr, the city’s capital improvements operations manager. “Trees and concrete were never designed to live harmoniously together. A lot of our sidewalk requests that we receive are caused by tree roots that have pushed up the sidewalk and created a lip. This lip is then a tripping hazard to people walking over it.”

The city still uses the old 50/50 list combined with a new list of sidewalk requests and complaints when determining what projects get done.

A property owner’s willingness to pay half no longer secures a project, Zuroske said, and, yes, some homeowners now are getting their sidewalks done for free while their neighbors had to pay half a handful of years ago, which is causing some frustration.

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Leaders developing new plan

City leaders hope to develop and adopt a new sidewalk program in coming years.

Cities like Chicago and Milwaukee are making strides with a program that lets the city repair and replace sidewalks each year based on zones. The cost is assessed to property owners’ tax bills, spread out over a few years to reduce the burden on residents.

Other models are being looked at, as well, Zuroske said.

Ald. Venita Hervey, D-5, said she likes the approach bigger cities are taking because it lets the work be done where it needs to be done and isn’t based on what a person can afford upfront.

Hervey would like the city to explore a tax-credit program, too, where property owners could get their sidewalks done themselves and receive some form of reimbursement. She believes property owners could get the jobs done for less money than the city because they wouldn’t have to hire union contractors.

Sidewalks are a big issue in Hervey’s ward, one of the oldest and poorest communities in the city. The ward also is home to a large number of people with disabilities and rental units, Hervey said.

“I have sidewalks that are in such bad condition and so old that they are going back into the earth,” she said. “I have residents who have to regularly go into the street in their wheelchairs because they can’t use sections of the sidewalk.”

“So to me, the whole approach with how we do our sidewalks is we want it to be more equitable and be able to address the safety issue.”